


Yellow Melody

by HauntedAutomaton



Series: Mr. Universe and the Crystal Gems: Reunion Tour [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Advice, Gen, Music, dads, families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-07 16:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14085039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HauntedAutomaton/pseuds/HauntedAutomaton
Summary: Greg drops by the barn to pick up some old audio gear that Peridot has fixed up for him. He's brought along Sour Cream to help him get started on his first new album in many years: "Water Witch"Sour Cream and Peridot have questions about "Dads," and Lapis has some questions for Greg about his new song.





	1. Chapter 1

    Lapis rolled over out of the hammock in the back of the barn, blinking sleepy brine out of the corner of her eye. She wondered for a moment what horrible dream had caused the sound that woke her, but the shrieking cacophony returned.

    “PERIDOT!” she called out, hands cradling her head.

    “Sorry!” came a cry from below, as the caterwaul of electronic screeching slowed to a stop.

    Lapis drifted down from the barn rafters on foaming wings. “I  _ just _ managed to get to get to sleep! And you woke me up!”

    Peridot looked back from her tangle of speaker wire and soundboards, and flipped up her welding goggles. “You’ve been asleep for three days.”

    “...Oh.”

    Lapis watched her friend continue wrangling tangles of loose wiring.

    “I’m almost done, though,” said Peri.

    The ocean gem stretched her bare toes in the fine dirt. “What are you almost done with?”

    “I’m glad you asked!” Peridot forced the repaired device closed, and began bolting it shut. “In an attempt to repay Dad Greg for me trying to murder Steven, I have agreed to help him repair this primitive human audio modulation equipment!”

    “Greg’s nice,” said Lapis. “He showed me how to fish.”

    “That sounds like fun.”

    “I sank his boat.”

    “Oh.”

    Lapis knelt onto the patchy grass tufts that had sprung up around the barn since winter.

    “You can help me finish up this repair if you like...” Peridot tried to reassure her.

    “I don’t know anything about...devices.”

    “That’s ok! I need all the help I can get to have it perfect before Dad Greg gets here to pick it up.”

    Lapis couldn't suppress a groan. “People are coming to the barn today? Ugghhh... Why didn’t you warn me sooner?”

    “You’ve been asleep for three days.” Peridot repeated.

    “Oh...”

    “Don’t worry! When Greg comes, you can say you’re sorry about his boat, and then you’ll feel better! Plus, I can tell him all about how you helped me paint his new audio modulator...” Peridot waggled a paint brush in an effort to tempt her barn-mate.

    Lapis rolled her eyes and scoffed, but couldn’t keep from grinning. “Fine, but we’re not painting fire on it.”

    After a few hours of watching paint dry, Lapis had nearly dozed off again. Right on the edge of consciousness, however, she heard the rumble of a distant engine puttering its way to the barn.

    With a snort and a jolt, she sat upright, her eyes darting around for Peridot.

    The green gem was nearby, sprawled out in a sunbeam, splotched in blue, purple, and some barely perceptible green paint.

    “Dotty...”

    Peridot recoiled and picked herself up. “I thought we agreed not to call me that...” Her scraggled hair was accentuated by several blades of grass stuck to the dry paint spots that dotted her body.

    “Greg’s here,” Lapis said, “And I never agreed to anything.”

    Peridot grumbled as she trapsed off to go meet the van. Lapis followed, plucking grass from the green gem’s hair.


	2. Chapter 2

    “...so...I guess it’s better now...but I still feel like there’s...stuff...we gotta work on...”

The lanky teen in Greg’s passenger seat droned in his typical deadpan tone, but there was a hint of concern creeping into his voice. Greg was listening intently while navigating the van off-road.

    “You think your dad’s just not understanding you? Cus let me tell ya, I have plenty of experience with that.”

    “I don’t think so,” Sour Cream leaned back in the reclined seat, crossing his legs on the dash above the busted glove box. “At least, not anymore. It’s more like...it’s more like  _ I _ don’t understand  _ him _ .”

    “Hrmm...” Greg scratched his whiskers with an idle thumb. “You probly don’t mean that old-world accent of his, huh?”

    “Not exactly...” Sour Cream said with a smirk as he watched the countryside trundle by. “I get why Dad wants me to have, like, a real...er...a realer job than music...but I guess I just don’t know how he can stand it. He’s out on the water all the time, doing all kinds of...fish stuff...and it’s boring and hard and I don’t even think he likes it all that much. But he’s done it for like forty years! How can anyone do anything for that many decades in a row!? I’d go crazy!”

    Greg wore a soft smile of understanding, and kept listening.

    “I guess...I feel like the world just makes more sense to Dad than it does to me.”

    “As a father, I can guarantee you that’s not true.”

    The teenager chuckled at that. “Yeah, maybe, but it feels like the only things out there for me to be are boring and hard. And I hate that! I dunno, does hating hard work make me lazy?”

    “You don’t hate hard work,” Greg replied, as if stating common knowledge. “How hard do you work on your music?”

    “I know, I know...” Sour Cream trailed off, staring out the window.

    Greg put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You should talk to your dad about this; let him know you’re trying to understand where he’s coming from.”

    “You think he’ll be able to help?”

    “Ehh, not really, but I know for a fact he would really appreciate you trying.”

    Sour Cream chuckled again, but the grin stayed this time, as he watched the barn come into view. “Thanks again for being cool Mr. U.”

    “No problem! I got an endless supply of  _ coool _ .” Greg wore a cheesy, toothy smile, but quickly dropped it to speak sincerely again. “Thanks for helping me with my old gear. If I’m ever going to get this album put together, I’m gonna need all the help I can get.”

    As the van pulled up to the barn, the teen took in the countryside.

    “This would be an amazing place for a gig!”

    Greg laughed, but nodded, “Yeah, but you’d have to ask the new owners. And they can be a little...eccentric-”

    Sour Cream opened the van door to find a small, grungy, spackle-painted, gem gremlin.

    “Greetings!” cried Peridot.


	3. Chapter 3

    “You sure you don’t mind if I do a bit recording out here?” asked Greg. “Just to try out the new stuff you built me.”

    “Not...at...all!” grunted Peridot, as she wielded her ferrokinesis to offload a speaker system from the van. The equipment thudded to the ground. “Phew...there! Now, you set up your musical implements, and I will procure the modulatory devices!”

    Sour Cream stood by, waiting to hook up his laptop once they knew everything was working. He saw a blue girl sulking by the edge of the barn, and gave a half-hearted wave.

    “Hey.”

    She squinted back at him.

    Peridot returned with the first sound board, complete with what looked like a microwave and a lawnmower engine attached to it.

    “Here you are, Dad Greg, the first of my many creations for your endeavors!”

    The man chuckled. “You can just call me ‘Greg,’ if you want.”

    “Is ‘Dad’ not your official title? I had assumed, since Steven always addressed you as such, and he is the only one who seems to acknowledge your authority in any way.”

    “Uh-huh,” he said in a monotone, but his grin returned, “Well, I bet he just calls me that cus I’m his father.”

    “I see...” said Peridot, a little ponderous. “In any case, I’ll get the rest of the modulators-”

    “Uhhh...” Greg scratched his waistband, “Why don’t we just start with the smallest one first?”

    “...This is the smallest one,” Peridot indicated the contraption before them.

    “Oh.” He held the end of an audio cable, and found what would normally have been the proper plug on the original soundboard. He pointed to it, and, to his pleasant surprise, Peridot nodded. Upon plugging it in, the amps clicked on with a low hum.

    “Well maybe I can actually figure this one out myself...why don’t you show Sour Cream the other other ones? He knows more about high-end stuff, so maybe he can translate for me.”

    Peridot looked at the other human who was sitting in the back of the Universe van a little ways off. He had gotten bored, then got on his computer, then got bored again, then got on his phone, and then got bored again.

    “Ok!” she said.

    “Oh, and uh, one more thing,” Greg said, unpacking his guitar case. He picked up a spiral-bound notebook from inside. “Water Witch - (working title)” was scribbled on the front. “I should probably talk to Lapis about my album while I’m here. Just to get her OK. Can you see if she’s got some time to chat?”

    Peridot spared a glace back to the barn, then gave Greg a thumbs-up.


	4. Chapter 4

    “...so back there is the ‘flipping bed,’ known on Earth as a ‘hammock,’ to the right is the in-home water tower, and just by the door-” Peridot stepped inside, “is the technical uniform foot de-filther!” The little gem scampered over to a horse-brush that was laying bristles-up on the floor, and began vigorously wiping her uniform’s ‘footies’ on it. “AhhOO...eeenyeehnO,” she shuddered, trying to continue wiping her feet. After she finished, she stamped back to the doorway. “The de-filther is in beta right now. It works well enough, but it just tickles so much...So! What do you think?”

     Sour Cream took in the barn that looked part conspiracy theorist hideout, part knick-knack laden family restaurant, and part tornado impact site.

     “Cool,” he said.

     “Right you are!” Peridot turned around, hands proudly on her hips. “Now, let me see...” She began glancing around the barn, before looking straight up. “There you are! Hey Lapis!”

     Sour Cream craned his neck up to see a pickup truck suspended in the wall above him. The blue gem was laying on the hood, poking her head over the side, glaring down at him.

     “Yeah...” she said.

     “Greg wants to talk to yo-”

     “About his boat, right?” Lapis’ tone was frustrated and resigned.

     “No, it’s about his music, I think.”

     “Oh...uh...ok.”

     Sour Cream watched the blue head disappear back over the truck, and then, with a creak of suspension, Lapis took off outside.

     Peridot waited until she saw her friend land near Greg before returning her attention to her visitor. “Now, human, let me show you my aural-manipulatory creations.”

     “You can call me Sour Cream,” said Sour Cream.

     “...Why would I do that?”

     The teen shrugged. “It’s just what people call me.”

     “I see. Well, you may address me as ‘Peridot, Leader of the Crystal Gems, Savior of Earth, Master of-’”

     “Whoa, dude, did you make these?” Sour Cream was examining an extensive meep-morp display hanging from the rafters. It was constructed from the gutted remains of several old 90’s era PCs. Beige plastic corpses of towers and monitors hung from thick insulated cables, each screen flickering pale scan lines as their only output.

     “...Yes, yes, Lapis and I are experienced meep-morp crafters, but that’s-”

     “What’s it about?”

     “It’s...I went through a period of questioning the effectiveness of technological dependence.” Peridot moved away from the pile of audio equipment to join the young man at the morp. “Fortunately, that particular wave of insanity passed quickly. Imagine...thinking that relying on technology can be some sort of weakness? Ha! How archaic!”

     “That’s deep, dude.” Sour Cream stepped back, hands in his pockets, admiring the other artistic examples all around.

     “Yes...well...thank you.” The gem seemed a little sheepish at the compliment from the human she just met. “Although ‘ _ dude _ ’ is not quite a proper designation for me.”

     “...Dudette?”

     “...fine...”

     The two of them sat down on paint cans next to the stacks of newly constructed soundboards, synthesizers, and turntables. Peridot hefted one onto the workbench between them, and Sour Cream let out a small “whoa...” of awe at the creation.

     “So you guys just live out here and make cool music and art stuff out of whatever?”

     Peridot looked up from powering on the device. “Mostly,” she said.

     “Man, Yellow Dad would never go for stuff like this. I mean, I know he tries to help out in his own way I guess. But it’s like he doesn’t see the point of any of it. He’s always just ‘MuhmuhMuh, muh muh, muhmuhmuhmuhMuh!’, ya know?”

     The gem didn’t respond.

     “Uh, sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up family stuff. My dad’s great, I’m just...anyway, let’s look at this-”

     “Soured Cream?” Peridot looked up suddenly. “What is the function of a dad?”

     The alien studied the human’s face. It contorted in thought. There was no doubt in Peridot’s mind that she had hit upon something important. She waited patiently for any response, as Sour Cream began to draw a long, steadying breath.

     “Uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

     She interrupted.

     “This is not as helpful as you think.”

     The teenager shook himself out of his droning. “Sorry, that’s just a complicated question for  _ me _ to answer.”

     “Is it a secret?” Peridot grew excited. “If so, rest assured that as the leader of the Earth Rebellion, if interrogated, I would sooner crack than...well...crack.”

     This pried a chuckle from Sour Cream. “Heh, no, it’s just complex. But I can give you a rundown.”

     “That’s good, because I may have somewhat exaggerated my resilience.”

     The human stretched as he stood, stiff from bending over the low workbench. “You mind if I use the flipping bed?”

     “Be my guest!” beamed Peridot. “But don’t tell Lapis.”

     “Kay...” He sat down in the fold of fabric, relaxing his back. “So...a dad...”

     The gem pulled up a beanbag chair filled with bouncy balls. A failed experiment in kinetic transportation, but it made for ok seating.

     “...A dad can be kinda like a boss...sometimes, like my Yellow Dad. Sometimes it’s because he’s like...the reason you’re around? If that makes sense?

     Peridot suddenly looked a little small, and a little worried. “I think I might have had a Yellow Dad. She was my boss. She was the reason I was made. She was the whole reason I existed.”

     “Uuuhhhhhh...” Sour Cream began again, but stopped himself this time. “Did she, like, take care of you and stuff?”

     The gem pulled her knees up to her chin. “No, she gave me a job to do, but she just wanted things  _ from _ me. Not  _ for _ me.”

     “That doesn’t sound like a Yellow Dad, that sounds like...a Marty.”

     “A Marty?”

     “Yeah,” Sour Cream stood up out of the hammock. “Well, I mean, there’s probably a lot of great Marties...but the one I knew  _ sucked _ . He just made me, and then didn’t care what happened to me, until he needed something.”

     Peridot stood alongside him. “Yeah, that sounds familiar.”

     She let the silence hang for a moment, trying to construct her next question.

     “Do you...” she finally began. “Do you ever feel like you...owe your Marty? For making you?”

     For a instant, Sour Cream wore a strange expression. It was gone in a moment, and it took that moment for Peridot to realize it was a reserved, but deep anger. The face did not suit him. But it passed quickly, and his expression settled back into understanding. “Do you feel that way about your dad?”

     When Peridot spoke her voice was quieter than she intended. “...Sometimes...” she admitted. The word tasted like shame.

     “Yeah,” Sour Cream gave a slow nod. “I think I felt that way for a while, before I really knew him. But now? I mean, yeah, sure, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him, but that’s true of a bunch of stuff! But like, I don’t feel like I owe cheap prophylactics for my existence, so why do I owe Marty anything? Sometimes, stuff just...happens. Sometimes it changes you, and makes you who you are.”

     “I guess it’s up to us to make that a good thing.” Peridot concluded.

     “Whoa, you are deep!”

     The green gem snickered in appreciation.

     “Well, I’m happy to have met you, Peridot,” Sour Cream extended his fist. “You’re a cool dudette.”

     Peridot gripped Sour Cream’s fist with confidence, and gave it a shake. “And you’re a perceptive human!”

     The human chuckled, “I guess I’m kind of glad having weird families is a universal thing. Do you have a bunch of cousins? I’ve got like seven on my mom’s side, and probably a whole bunch from Yellow Dad. I bet it’s like twelve.”

     “By my estimation, there are approximately 2.6 million Peridots active in this galaxy.”

     “...Oh...do you guys see each other much?”

     “...No, not often.”

     “Well that’s family for ya.”

     The pair of them meandered back over to the stack of audio equipment to begin Sour Cream’s education. Greg’s guitar riffs wafted in from outside as the teen gave the first device a long look. Peridot began to explain the device and its features. It was a set of turntables with numerous additions, including dual antennas, a pullcrank, and what looked like a manual transmission. Around the time she was explaining how to utilize the gearstick to produce Nth order wave transformations, Sour Cream interrupted.

     “Hey, I don’t want to bum you out or anything, but I think it might take me longer to learn this stuff than we thought.”

     Peridot frowned. “Greg said you were an advanced technician, but then again, humans are fairly primitive. I suppose I should have seen this coming. My improvements are rather...extensive. How long do you think it will take you to learn to utilize this equipment. Keeping in mind that you have me as a teacher.”

     “Uh...best guess...about...forever.”

     “What?! But I worked so hard on these for Greg! He needs them so that I can be absolved of attempted murder!”

     Sour Cream maintained his deadpan expression. “Well...you make art and stuff, right? And you’re already a technician...why don’t you help us with audio?”

     Peridot’s eyes swelled. “R-really?”

     The young man nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, sure, you’ll have to ask Greg, but I think it’d be really cool to have you running tech with us.”

     “Then it’s settled!” the gem exclaimed. “Your musical pursuits will improve by orders of magnitude with me helping you! Now, let’s get this equipment out to-”

     The pair stopped as they realized Greg’s guitar had been joined by a voice.


	5. Chapter 5

    Drifting in the electric hum of amps, with a guitar slung around him, Greg felt a familiar nostalgia. He plucked a few chords just to check that everything was hooked up, and then he strummed a few more just for his own sake.

    “ _ Hmmmm...like a comet... _ ”

    A shadow sweeping the ground halted his performance.

    Lapis touched down with bare feet on soft grass. “Hey,” she said.

    “Lapis!” Greg responded with genuine cheer. “How ya been?”

    “Um...” she parsed the question. “Ok.”

    Greg’s smile softened. The pair stood in silence for a moment, before the human picked the conversation back up.

    “So, I don’t know if Peridot told you, but I’d like to ask you about-”

    “Music?” Lapis interrupted.

    “Yes...music,” Greg was suddenly a bit nervous. He took his spiral notebook out of the guitar case, and a loose leaf paper slid out of the middle.

    “Woop-” The man frantically tried to snatch it out of the air, but it fluttered from his grasp, landing at Lazuli’s feet.

    The page depicted a watercolor scene, a column of azure light, a menacing blue woman, and the words “Water Witch.”

    Lapis studied the page as she picked it up. Greg studied her face, but received no insight.

    She finally spoke. “Is this...me?”

    “No!” Greg responded, a bit too hasty to be believable. “Well, there may have been some inspiration, and it’s just a concept! It can change! It’s not...”

    “Is this how you...see me?”

    “No.” He was honest this time. “No I don’t. Not...not anymore, anyway.”

    “Is this because I...wrecked your boat?”

    “What?” Greg was befuddled for a moment. “My...Oh! The rental! Oh, don’t worry, turns out they had insurance for that!”

    Lapis took her turn being befuddled.

    The man noticed her expression. “No, this isn’t about the boat at all. This is more from...you know...before. When you took all the water?”

    She looked back at the painting. “This...this is what you saw when I was trying to get home?”

    “Yeah, pretty much. Vi works better with a reference, but I think she did a really good job...”

    Lapis ran her thumb over the Water Witch’s face. “I look......Powerful.”

    “Heh, yeah” Greg stepped over to share her perspective on the album art, and she passed him the painting. “You made a column of seawater into the sky, had the gems on the ropes with those water guys, and almost...” He stopped himself.

    “I remember.” she said. “Just barely. I was more than half-cracked and the water clones had minds of their own. Steven almost...” Greg could just make out emotion in her voice.

    “The water clones are done.” She was resolute. “After what I did to Steven and Connie, I’m not using them anymore...at least for now.” She turned her attention back to the album art. “But you really thought I was...powerful?”

    Greg smiled. “I still think you’re powerful.”

    Lapis moved a bit away to sit on the grass.

    Greg leaned back into the open van, resting on the back bumper.

    “Oof...” he sighed in relief.

    “I don’t like talking about this stuff,” she found herself saying. “It makes me feel like I felt with-”

    The word “Jasper” hung in her throat.

    Greg took the opportunity to pick a few notes. The amps hummed low with the melody. After a moment, he grabbed the Water Witch notebook. “Here.” He tossed the book to Lapis. “Have a look at my lyrics. Since it’s kind of about you, I guess you should get final say.”

    She scanned the lines. “Why would you sing about stuff like this?”

    “The same reason you do any kind of art.” He began to play the chords to Water Witch, just to feel out the new system. “Seeing what my son had to go through up close was tough. Gem stuff is way out of my league, so I guess I’m just turning all those feelings into things I’m good at. Like rockn’ out.”

    Lapis placed the album cover back in the notebook. “What about the things it hurts to feel?”

    “Music can help with that, too. Besides, it’s better to use that stuff than it is to try and ignore it.”

    The ocean gem listened to the cyclic rise and fall of the guitar. The tune was melancholy, but not resigned. It held a grim determination, somewhere between hope and anger. It filled her, and she overflowed.

    She began to sing along.

    Peridot and Sour Cream burst from the barn, and rushed to see the pair.

    “I can’t believe they started without us!” exclaimed Peridot.

    “Here!” Sour Cream thrust a cable into Peridot’s hand. “Hook me up, I’ve got to record this!”

    The gem nodded, and scrambled to add the cable to the nest already developed at the back of the soundboard.

    Lapis giggled at the pair’s eagerness, despite herself. Greg moved beside her, and passed her a mic, smiling as he did so.

    “You ready, Peridot?” Sour Cream called out.

    The green gem nodded once. “Yes!”

    “Take it from the top, Mr. U!”

    The four of them launched into the performance together. Greg and Lapis gave a good show of it, despite the lack of rehearsal, while Peridot added synth tones at Sour Cream’s direction.

    “Yeah, now hit Lapis’ channel with some reverb, make her sound like she’s underwater!” The teen instructed.

    Peridot obliged him. “Ooo, menacing!”

    “Hey,” Greg called out to Sour Cream. “Throw a baseline in here, and let’s see if we can’t get a song hammered out today!” As the DJ flew to his computer, the guitarist turned to Lapis. “If you wanna be in a song, that is...”

    Lapis couldn't help but grin as she watched Peridot work, and her friend returned the smile with a thumbs up.

    “Alright, let’s rock!”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed something in particular about this, or thought of something that might work better in a spot or two, please let me know! I'm trying to get better, so all comments/criticisms welcome. I'd love to hear from you!


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